A Sad Goodbye
by Serephita Nightrunner
Summary: A one-shot I initially wrote as an RP sample on livejournal, and expanded a bit as a personal writing exercise. Heavily implied Zack/Aerith.


Afternoon sunlight streamed lightly through the sole window of the room, while Aerith sat at her desk, looking up at the ceiling, almost as if daydreaming. In reality though, she was thinking of what to write next in her letter. Tilting her head to the side, her gaze wandered around her small room, finally resting on a small vase with two flowers in it. Although they should have wilted and died long ago, an unseen life force was keeping them alive, and they filled her room with the soft scent of spring. Smiling, she put pen to paper and began writing.

"Aerith! There's a letter for you!" Elmyra called up the stairs to her daughter as she walked in the door. Aerith looked up towards her open bedroom door, surprised. Pushing her bangs back away from her face in a futile effort to keep them out of her eyes, she stood up, pushing back her chair. "I'll be right down, Mom!" she called, and put down her pen. Taking one last glance at the picture she kept next to her bed on her desk, she smiled at it and quickly went down the stairs. "Hi," she said to her mother, sparing her a brief glance and a smile before reaching for her letter. Looking at the handwriting on the envelope, she felt her heart beat quicker. "Its from Zack!" she exclaimed, beaming up at Elmyra. "He must have finally gotten my letters," her face softened into a smile as she opened the envelope and began to read.

Suddenly though, her face went pale, and she sunk slowly into the kitchen chair. "Mom?" she said in a very strangled voice, looking up at Elmyra. "He...Zack's not coming back. Ever," tears began to slowly roll down her face as she absorbed what the letter had said, her heart still trying to deny it. "The -- he said he got my letters, but by the time I got this, ShinRa would have found him. He wanted to come back, but they wouldn't let him. Mom? Why did they have to do this? Zack was always so _loyal_ to them. He...he never did anything he thought they would reprimand him for, and definitely nothing so serious..." her voice broke off as she tried not to cry. Zack, _her_ Zack, her boyfriend, the man she truly loved, dead. Gone. They wouldn't be able to go see _Loveless_ like they had planned for her 20th birthday, a special day that Zack had told her couldn't be ignored or treated like any other. He wouldn't be there to repair the cart for her flowers anymore, or help her tend to the flowers...nothing. Somewhere inside, Aerith felt her world beginning to crumble. Straightening her back and trying to hold her head high, she took a shaky breath, trying to hold herself together for her own sake, as well as her mothers. Aerith had grown up understanding the position of a woman who was in love with an employee of ShinRa, and knew that this day might come, having learned from Elmyra's example.

She would never understand though, why ShinRa always seemed to repay loyalty with death. Of course, she knew her biological parents hadn't exactly been loyal, but they had had a true reason. Zack's death seemed...senseless. An act of cruelty against her that almost seemed personal, to drive her towards surrendering herself to them, or to give her a reason to fight against them. Aerith knew that either way, ShinRa would stop at nothing to get what they wanted, and vowed in that moment that she would not actively fight against them, nor would she surrender. The best choice -- her only choice in her mind -- would be to continue. Continue her life as though it didn't matter, even as her heart would break inside.

Folding the letter back up and picking up the envelope with a shaking hand and preparing to put it back in, something small and metallic fell out and landed on the floor with a tiny iplunk/i. Curious, Aerith leaned down to pick it up, and gasped. It was a silver ring, although small, with a tiny collection of gems in the center, forming a flower. When the light would hit it just right, it almost looked as if there were tiny bits of the Lifestream in it, bits of the souls of the departed, still living in there. Smiling and wiping away her tears, Aerith realized Zack had sent it to her for a reason. To show that she needed to keep on living, for herself, and for them both. Sliding the ring onto her left ring finger, Aerith knew she would never take it off. "I will live for you, for us, no matter what happens. I promise, Zack." she whispered to no one in particular, her mother having long since left the room, unnoticed. And in that moment, Aerith could have sworn that she felt Zack there, his arms around her as she cried a mixture of tears of joy and sorrow...joy for the love they had shared, and sorrow for what she had lost.


End file.
